Movie review: The new ‘Shaft’ features three cats that won’t cop out

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Wednesday

Jun 12, 2019 at 11:00 PM

The chronological pop culture history of rough and tumble private investigator John Shaft unfolds like this: The novel “Shaft” by Ernest Tidyman (1970), the film “Shaft” starring Richard Roundtree (1971), “Shaft’s Big Score!” with Roundtree (1972), the TV series “Shaft” with Roundtree (1973), “Shaft in Africa” with Roundtree (1973), “Shaft” starring Samuel L. Jackson, with an appearance by Roundtree as Uncle John Shaft (2000).

And now we have “Shaft” with Jackson as John Shaft II, Roundtree cameoing as John Shaft (revealed to be Jackson’s father, not uncle), and Jessie T. Usher as John Shaft Jr.

Grandfather, father, son: This movie should have been titled “Shafts.”

Call it what you will, it’s a hip, slick, funny, action-packed, violent throwback of a film that will cause consternation among some politically correct viewers because of its casual and seemingly overt racism and misogyny. But more astute viewers will realize that all of that “bad” behavior is nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek swipe at itself.

A flashback opening scene that could have been part of the 2000 film shows Shaft (Jackson) sitting in a car in Harlem with his wife Maya (Regina Hall) moments before the car is riddled with bullets by some unknown assailants. Because Shaft is so coooool, he just gets out, pistols in hand, and takes care of business, making sure that Maya and - Oops! Their young boy in the back seat - are OK. But it’s a last-straw scenario; Maya takes the boy, and they’re both out of Shaft’s life.

Jumping up to current day, the boy is John Shaft Jr. or J.J. (Jessie T. Usher), newly hired by the FBI as a data analyst/cyber security expert whose best friend Karin - a cleaned-up former heroin addict - dies under mysterious circumstances. Though he hasn’t seen or heard from his dad (Jackson) in 25 years, that’s who he calls on to help figure out what happened.

This early point in the film is where attention to detail must jump into gear. We meet Sasha (Alexandra Shipp), a doctor who’s friends with J.J. and Karin; there are hints of shadiness in an organization called Brothers Watching Brothers; the FBI is looking into the possibility that a local mosque is a hotbed of terrorist activities; J.J., who is good at his job, but naïve in his approach to it, is trying to work his way up in the ranks of the FBI, though his spiteful boss keeps holding him back.

In due time, it’s revealed that Shaft is quietly at work on a decades-long vendetta against a local drug lord, that a military scandal is underway, and that a hostage situation takes shape. So, yes, there’s some nasty stuff going on, and the body count keeps growing due to the inordinate number of guns being carried and used. But the success of the script is that it somehow successfully balances and even tempers all of that violence with different sorts of humor.

Samuel L. Jackson has long known how to make you cringe and laugh in the same instant, and he gives us both a dangerous and hilarious (and crude) character here. His Shaft is a smooth operator, a man about town who knows and knows how to treat the ladies, and who lives by his own rules, even though he seems to be making them up as he goes along. Usher, who gives J.J. a wide but believable character arc, spends about half of the film reacting in comic shock to his dad’s exploits. Hall proves she’s adept in comic scenes, especially one that features her staring into a mirror that’s reminiscent of Travis Bickle asking, “Are you talkin’ to me?” And everything about the film gets much brighter with the appearance of Roundtree at the 95-minute mark.

Of course, the violence never goes away, and could pop back up at any time, and the film takes a serious look at the strained father-son relationship between Shaft and J.J., as well as the probably (but not definitely) ruined one between Shaft and Maya. But it all regularly comes back to being raucous fun. And don’t worry, the original theme song keeps raising its funky head.

Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.